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http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080710/NEWS0201/807100371/1009/NEWS01
GOP: Naifeh lied over gun permit
Public records used to challenge his application timeline
By ERIK SCHELZIG • Associated Press [/i]• July 10, 2008
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The state Republican Party is again taking shots at Democratic House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh over his role in blocking efforts to close the state's handgun carry permit database from public inspection.
The GOP's ammunition in the latest salvo: results of a public information request about Naifeh's handgun permit.
The party issued a release Wednesday piecing together the timeline of Naifeh's application for a handgun carry permit, claiming that the Covington lawmaker was using it as "political cover" and that he lied in an April 11 newspaper opinion piece that said he had already applied for his permit.
According to the release, state records show Naifeh didn't submit his application until 10 days later and he didn't clear a background check until May 12. Naifeh spokesman Addison Pate acknowledged that the opinion piece should have referred to the speaker's earning his gun course certificate on March 29, and not the permit that he received later.
It isn't the first time the state GOP has shown a conflicting stance to the handgun records. In April, GOP spokesman Bill Hobbs submitted a records request for the entire handgun database on the same day he publicly scolded Democrats for their maneuver to keep the information public.
Hobbs said Wednesday's release wasn't meant to bring up the debate about the records, but to highlight the discrepancy over when Naifeh filed his permit application.
But he acknowledged that the information would not have been available if Naifeh hadn't been successful in keeping the records open.
"If the database had been closed, he would have been able to get away with a lie," Hobbs said. "Ironic, isn't it?"
Party requests all records
Hobbs also repeated an earlier claim that the party "would have preferred to have been unable to obtain the records." He said the party previously requested the entire database for political purposes in the upcoming election season.
Naifeh was instrumental last session in defeating several other gun bills, including proposals to allow people to carry their weapons into restaurants and state parks, authorizing faculty and staff at public schools and universities to carry handguns on campus and to give people voluntarily hospitalized in mental institutions the right to obtain handgun permits after seven years.
On April 2, Naifeh showed reporters the certificate he earned after taking an eight-hour firearms course needed to qualify for a handgun carry permit in Tennessee.
"Now I've got to get the application, be fingerprinted and have a picture made before I can get my permit," he said. "That's my diploma."
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080710/NEWS0201/807100371/1009/NEWS01
GOP: Naifeh lied over gun permit
Public records used to challenge his application timeline
By ERIK SCHELZIG • Associated Press [/i]• July 10, 2008
function NewWindow(height,width,url)
{window.open(url,"ShowProdWindow","menubars=0,scrollbars=1,resizable=1,height="+height+",width="+width);
}
The state Republican Party is again taking shots at Democratic House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh over his role in blocking efforts to close the state's handgun carry permit database from public inspection.
The GOP's ammunition in the latest salvo: results of a public information request about Naifeh's handgun permit.
The party issued a release Wednesday piecing together the timeline of Naifeh's application for a handgun carry permit, claiming that the Covington lawmaker was using it as "political cover" and that he lied in an April 11 newspaper opinion piece that said he had already applied for his permit.
According to the release, state records show Naifeh didn't submit his application until 10 days later and he didn't clear a background check until May 12. Naifeh spokesman Addison Pate acknowledged that the opinion piece should have referred to the speaker's earning his gun course certificate on March 29, and not the permit that he received later.
It isn't the first time the state GOP has shown a conflicting stance to the handgun records. In April, GOP spokesman Bill Hobbs submitted a records request for the entire handgun database on the same day he publicly scolded Democrats for their maneuver to keep the information public.
Hobbs said Wednesday's release wasn't meant to bring up the debate about the records, but to highlight the discrepancy over when Naifeh filed his permit application.
But he acknowledged that the information would not have been available if Naifeh hadn't been successful in keeping the records open.
"If the database had been closed, he would have been able to get away with a lie," Hobbs said. "Ironic, isn't it?"
Party requests all records
Hobbs also repeated an earlier claim that the party "would have preferred to have been unable to obtain the records." He said the party previously requested the entire database for political purposes in the upcoming election season.
Naifeh was instrumental last session in defeating several other gun bills, including proposals to allow people to carry their weapons into restaurants and state parks, authorizing faculty and staff at public schools and universities to carry handguns on campus and to give people voluntarily hospitalized in mental institutions the right to obtain handgun permits after seven years.
On April 2, Naifeh showed reporters the certificate he earned after taking an eight-hour firearms course needed to qualify for a handgun carry permit in Tennessee.
"Now I've got to get the application, be fingerprinted and have a picture made before I can get my permit," he said. "That's my diploma."
